1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to breakwaters and more particularly to a floating breakwater comprising an array of buoyant annular members and more particularly, but not by way of limitation, to a floating array of interlocked vehicle tires.
2. History of the Prior Art
Marinas, boat mooring locations and the like, whether located near the ocean or on a lake shore require protection from waves by some sort of breakwater system. To construct a breakwater by conventional methods of depositing rock into an elongated strip is very expensive and, where the water is deep or the bottom is soft, this method is not feasible for most operations.
Another seemingly unrelated problem exists in the disposal of used automobile and truck tires. One reliable source has estimated that there is an existing stockpile of more than 2 billion scrap tires in the United States which can probably be obtained for little or no cost other than that of transportation and handling. There is also evidence that the stockpile of scrap tires is growing which can create an ecological problem in and of itself. In most cases, it is unlawful to dispose of the scrap tires by burning or in land fills. Tires may be disposed in land fills where they are first cut into relatively small flat pieces.
Since these tires are buoyant in water, one of the present inventors has recognized the value of utilizing such scrap tires as a floating breakwater as evidenced by his prior U.S. Pat. No. 3,357,192 issued Dec. 12, 1967, to George Hibarger for "Breakwaters."
During the inventors' study of the use of tires as a floating breakwater, it has been found that there is very litter problem with the tires decomposing, breaking down or otherwise deteriorating. They seem to take on a coating of algae and their deterioration is imperceptible over a reasonable period of time.
The weak link in the system of creating breakwaters out of vehicle tires turns out to be the cables or tying materials which are used to lash the tires together. Further, these tying materials represent the bulk of the expense in construction of such floating breakwaters.